The Pasig City local government announced on Thursday, Oct. 20, the acquisition of two pieces of land to be used for the expansion of its schools facilities and other city projects aiming to improve the quality of education of the youth.
Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto posted on his Facebook page photos of his signing of Deeds of Sales for the lands.
The two pieces of land are:
1. Nagpayong - 25,825 sq.m. x ₱5,500/sq.m. = P142 million 2. Pinagbuhatan Proper - 3,352 sq.m. x ₱17,900/sq.m. = P60 million
Sotto said the Nagpayong property will be used for the expansion of social services (Kanlungan sa Pasig), public park, evacuation site, school annex buildings, and possibly a new school.
Meanwhile, the Pinagbuhatan land will be used for school expansion.
"Before I am allowed to make an offer, it goes through our Land Appraisal Committee. We negotiate for the lowest fair price, and then the City Council can authorize the payment. Prices are inclusive of taxes," Sotto said as he explained that all city government projects and negotiations will be transparent to the public to avoid corruption.
The city's Schools Division Office (SDO) also lauded the project.
"This is a positive response to the call of the Basic Education Sector to solve existing problems on class size, especially in densely populated areas such as Baranggay Pinagbuhatan. New land for new school buildings means more classrooms for our learners," it said.
Stressing the importance of improved quality education, Sotto spearheaded the local school board meeting which tackled the programs that aim to boost the city’s education sector amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.
On his Twitter page, Sotto posted pictures of the meeting and said that some of the topics included the Summer Reading Camp for the month of July, the specialization course for the city’s science and mathematics teachers, Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) capacity development, additional support for face-to-face learning, and the repairs and maintenance of the city schools.
The meeting also discussed the local government unit’s partnership with private schools, including training for teachers.
Sotto added that for the city’s scholarship program, existing pandemic scholars from the private schools will be renewed. However, all new applicants will have to pass through the regular process and criteria.
In April, Sotto reported his administration’s accomplishments in improving the education sector of the city amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
In his Facebook post, Sotto said that since 2019, the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasig (PLP) has been implementing Republic Act 10931 or UniFAST (Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education) which aims to provide students in the tertiary level with free tuition and other educational expenses. The said law authored by Pasig City Representative Roman Romulo was passed in 2016.
PLP students also received gadgets from the local government for their distance learning and a connectivity allowance worth P500 per month.
Pasig also increased its scholars from 12,000 to 20,000 students even during the Covid-19 crisis.
Sotto said that they will further increase the number of scholars every year as long as it is within the income bracket.
Aside from the income bracket, Pasig also uses a ranking system based on the student’s grades to ensure that the scholarship will be fair to all and to prevent “palakasan". It has also relaxed and streamlined its requirements for scholarship grants.